Carmen had surrendered herself to her enemies in exchange for Duarte’s word that I wouldn’t be harmed. She’d saved my life on the chaotic, violent night when Duarte’s cartel had assaulted hers, but she’d condemned me to being held as a hostage. Trapped in a world of criminals. Vulnerable to callous, greedy men like Daniel.
Before I could force down another cloying breath, my memory of Raúl’s vicious snarl became real. I cringed, pressing my back tightly to the wall, as though I could sink into it and hide from his wrath. I’d heard him make this feral sound once before, on my first day in captivity. He’d killed a man with his bare hands as punishment for daring to touch me.
Daniel’s groping hands left me abruptly. His sharp shout boomed through the cramped corridor, then cut off with a sickening crack.
My eyes flew open, and my lungs froze. Raúl was terrifying to behold, the beastly nature that he barely managed to contain overtaking him completely. One of his massive hands encircled Daniel’s throat, pinning him against the wall. Daniel’s designer shoes dangled a few inches above the crimson carpet, his much smaller body lifted in Raúl’s meaty fist as easily as a ragdoll.
Raúl bared his teeth on a rumbling snarl, his heavy brows lowering to cast forbidding, skull-like shadows over his eyes.
“No one touches her.” His ragged words held a fevered edge, as though the promise he’d made his boss on the night of my abduction had become an obsessive litany.
Daniel’s heels drummed against the wall, leaving dark scuff marks on the ivory paint. His cheeks had darkened to an alarming shade of purple, and his mouth gaped in a desperate attempt to draw breath that Raúl denied him.
My captor’s massive frame swelled, his muscles tensing.
“No!” I gasped, a heartbeat before he could crush Daniel’s throat. If Raúl killed Daniel, my dream for freedom would die along with him.
Raúl’s body jerked, and he let out a low grunt, as though I’d thrown my full weight at him to stop his violent act.
Hard, deep green eyes turned on me, and a small squeak slipped up my throat; a mouse confronted by a hungry lion. His hand remained locked around my accomplice’s neck, but Daniel was still alive, even if his eyes were rolling with terror.
“He touched you,” Raúl grated out, his lips peeled back from his flashing white teeth. The small scar on his upper lip puckered, the indelible mark of his brutal nature enhancing the danger that pulsed from him with each of his heaving breaths. I knew he was strong enough that holding Daniel wasn’t causing this exertion, but restraining himself from finishing the kill seemed to be costing him more energy than running five miles.
Something shifted inside me, and the fear that had frozen my blood in my veins melted. Fixed in his intense stare, I realized with absolute certainty that Raúl wouldn’t hurt me. He didn’t suspect my plot against him. He wanted to murder Daniel because he’d dared to put his hands on me, not because he’d heard us conspiring to overthrow his boss’ regime.
“I’m okay,” I promised on a whisper.
The breathless quality to my voice wasn’t entirely a result of my burst of terror at being discovered with Daniel. Warmth bloomed in my chest, pumping throughout my body in a strange surge of strength. I should’ve been cowering and begging for my life, but the intensity of Raúl’s stare made me feel bizarrely powerful. My single, panicked no had restrained him from killing his quarry more effectively than if I’d bound him in rope.
“Please, let him go.” My plea softened his fierce expression, and his beastly snarl melted away.
As the tension around his mouth eased, the scar on his lip suddenly emphasized how impossibly lush they were. Those lips were such an incongruously sensual feature on his granite face. I’d noticed the contradiction dozens of times during my weeks of captivity, but the sudden shift from lethal animal to imposing man was so jarring that it momentarily knocked the air from my chest.
His eyes gleamed like polished jade as they roved over my body, lingering on my curves. “He didn’t hurt you?” He rasped the question, even though his thorough inspection gave him the answer.
I shook my head, but he wasn’t focusing on my face. His nostrils flared when his gaze fixed on my chest. I’d caught him looking at my body before, but he’d always jerked his attention away quickly. Now, he appeared transfixed, his full attention bearing down on me. I felt pinned in place, despite the fact that his younger, weaker associate was the one trapped under his restrictive hand.
My eyes flicked to Daniel’s ruddy face. In a few more seconds, he’d pass out from oxygen deprivation. Even if Raúl didn’t crush his throat, he wouldn’t survive much longer.